Cong to declare 21 more candidates in Punjab, Amarinder hints at dropping of MLAs names from list

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said the party will announce names of another 20-21 candidates for the state Assembly elections by the next week and indicated that few MLAs may be dropped from the list.

New Delhi: Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said the party will announce names of another 20-21 candidates for the state Assembly elections by the next week and indicated that few MLAs may be dropped from the list.

"Winnability would be the only criteria in nominating the remaining candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls and those sitting MLAs who do not meet the winnability criteria will be dropped from the list," he told reporters here.

The party has finalised the list of other 20-21 candidates which will be announced by the end of this month, Singh said.

Welcoming Davinder Singh Ghubaya, son of Sher Singh Gubaya, the sitting SAD MP from Ferozepur in Punjab, he said if party President agrees to his candidature then he could be the party's youngest candidate in the upcoming polls as he turned 25 just a few weeks ago.

Davinder, an IIT-Roorkee graduate, is a Rai Sikh, the community which has strong influence over 24 out of 117 seats in Punjab Assembly.

He joined Congress along with his uncle Munsha Gubaya, Rajat Nehra, Anand Sharma and Rajinder Kaur.

Rejecting the argument that Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls result will have an impact on the state polls, Singh said the issues in the union territory, which was controlled by the Centre, could not be compared with the issues facing the Punjab electorate, who were "totally fed up of the Badals after their decade of misrule".

People across Punjab had been suffering immensely due to the cash crunch triggered by demonetisation, with farmers reeling under shortage of money and industries laying off labourers and even closing down in some cases due to their inability to meet their operational and other expenses, he added.